Philips Wouwerman

Acquired probably after 1860, by Sir Francis Cook 1st Baronet, Visconde de Monserrate (1817-1901), Doughty House, Richmond;
By descent to Sir Frederick Cook (1844-1920), Doughty House, Richmond;
By descent to Sir Herbert Cook (1868-1939);
By descent to Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th Baronet (1907-1978);
His and the Cook Trustees sale, London, Sotheby's, 25 June 1958, lot 134, £800 to Jenkins;
With Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam, 1958-59;
Dr Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam.

The Art Exhibitions Bureau,Touring Exhibition Dutch & Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century from the Cook Collection,  August 1946 – January 1948, at Lincoln, Rochdale, Nottingham, Middlesborough, Hull, Birkenhead, Sheffield, Bradford, Norwich & Bedford, variously as number 32, 45, 48 or 49;
Bath, Holburne of Menstrie Museum, on loan 1948-51, extended until c.1958;
Delft, Prinsenhof, Antiekbeurs (exhibited by Kunsthandel P. de Boer), 1958;
Laren, 1966, no. 61.

According to Hofstede de Groot (see below) Cook Collection number 214, presumed to be a no longer extant MS list, probably by Herbert Cook (1868-1939), later 3rd Baronet Baronet;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. II, London 1909, p. 632, no. 1137 ("A very fine early work");
Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond. Belonging to Sir Frederick Cook, Bart. Visconde de Monserrate, editions 1903, 1907 & 1914, no. 148, (as in The Long Gallery);
J.O. Kronig, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt. Visconde de Monserrate, edited by Herbert Cook, vol. II, London 1914, Dutch & Flemish Schools, p. 117, no. 385;
M.W. Brockwell, Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House Richmond Surrey in the collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart., London 1932, p. 47, no. 385;
Voorkeuren, 1985, p. 72, reproduced p. 73;
B. Schumacher, Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668). The Horse Painter of the Golden Age, Doornspijk 2006, vol. I, p. 375, no. A528, reproduced vol. II, colour plate 90 and plate 487.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The oak panel is in a good condition with some minor wood worm damage. The paint layer is stable. In raking light the vertical wood grain is quite pronounced and as a result some of the raised 'peaks' of paint have been abraded by earlier cleaning action; these areas have been strengthened and are most notable in the sky, upper left. Some of the originally intended sketchy nature employed by the artist, using the ground for tonal difference, has also been reduced in the sky and in other areas. There are some thinnesses to the darker passages of paint which have been augmented, e.g. the coat of the figure on top of the tunnel looking down, the shadow in the tunnel and the shadow of the horse. A filigree of pale shrinkage cracks have been reduced on the figures. Much of the paint is in a good condition and when the varnish and old over paint is removed not only will there be a tonal improvement but, I believe, much of the original intended sketchiness will be revealed. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame with some chips."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Birgit Schumacher dates this work to circa 1655.  This is one of a small group of some eleven winter landscapes by Wouwerman, painted between the late 1640s and the mid-1660s.

It has been suggested that this picture may also be listed in Hofstede de Groot as no. 1131, where identically described but with different measurements (26 by 33 cm.), but the Cook provenance of the present picture makes this unlikely.

We are most grateful to John Somerville for his help in cataloguing this picture.